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Sakho: I wasn’t celebrating… Honest

Liverpool owned defender Mamadou Sakho has defended his actions that sent many of our fans into a rage at the weekend.

The defender, who’s on loan at Crystal Palace and was therefore ineligible to play, got up off the bench and did a planned handshake with Christian Benteke (also ex-Liverpool…) when the Belgian equalised.

It irritated plenty of Liverpool supporters who saw it as gloating, especially when Sakho is still contracted to the club.

But the Frenchman doesn’t think he did anything wrong…

“There is nothing behind it,” he began.

“When Christian scored, I stayed seated as I didn’t want to celebrate by respect for the club to which I belong and the fans,” Sakho told the Echo. “But when he came over to me, I stood up and did what we always do as friends, our hand check.

“There was nothing behind it, nothing else to imply by it. Just two friends who are playing for the same team and who have the same goal, which is to get the three points at each game to make sure the team stays in the Premier League.

“If we were losing 2-0 and Christian reduced the score, we would have also done it if he came to me.”

“We are very happy obviously. That was our goal when we set foot on the pitch. We need all the points we can get to be sure to stay in the Premier League – that is our mission. That is why I accepted the challenge with Palace, and we need to be the best we can as a team to succeed.”

Much of Liverpool’s anger was because our own defenders, especially Dejan Lovren, performed so poorly, when a centre-back of Sakho’s ability is being lent to someone else.

He’s played a huge part in helping them climb away from the relegation zone, but we’ll never know how our fortunes would or wouldn’t have changed if he’d lined up for us all season…

In terms of ability, he’s exceptional, but his attitude (as displayed at the weekend) often leaves lots to be desired, and as fans, it’s our job to trust Klopp’s judgement.